Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT EVERYTHING COLLAPSED
Claire's life shattered in less than an hour.
Daniel disappeared.
Her mother received a threatening message.
And Claire found a note on her apartment door.
Tell Adrien to stop investigating.
She immediately called him.
He answered on the first ring.
“Claire?”
“Daniel is missing.”
Silence.
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Lock the door.”
“I already did.”
“Don't open it for anyone.”
She began crying.
“Adrien, I was wrong.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
“I do.”
“How?”
“Because I know who took your brother.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“Who?”
“Julian.”
The door handle moved.
Claire screamed.
Adrien shouted through the phone.
“Get away from the door!”
The lock exploded inward.
Two men entered.
Claire ran.
She grabbed a kitchen chair and swung it.
One man stumbled.
She escaped through the back door.
Adrien arrived six minutes later.
He found her phone on the floor.
And blood on the wall.
His world went silent.
“Find her.”
Marco nodded.
“Already working.”
Adrien's voice was deadly calm.
“I want every camera in this city.”
“We'll find her.”
“And Julian?”
Marco hesitated.
Adrien looked at him.
“Find my brother.”
Meanwhile, Claire woke in a warehouse.
Daniel was tied to a chair nearby.
Julian stood in front of them.
“You made a mistake,” he told Claire.
“You're the thief.”
Julian smiled.
“Not thief.”
He leaned closer.
“Survivor.”
He explained that Adrien's father had promised Julian's father a portion of the company decades earlier.
Adrien inherited everything.
Julian believed it should have been his.
“I spent fifteen years watching Adrien become everything our father wanted.”
Claire stared at him.
“So you destroyed him.”
“No.”
Julian smiled.
“I destroyed the illusion that he was untouchable.”
He walked away.
Claire whispered to Daniel.
“When he comes back, run.”
Daniel shook his head.
“How?”
“I'll figure it out.”
She noticed something.
A loose wire.
A broken security camera.
And a red emergency button.
She smiled faintly.
Julian had underestimated her.
That was his mistake.
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Claire had spent years solving impossible problems for people who had no one else.
She wasn't going to stop now.
